This proposal focuses on the continued enhancement and further development of three core research facilities; the expansion of which will ensure Howard University's ability to contribute substantially to studies of diseases that disproportionately affect disadvantaged and minority populations. The three core facilities are the Biomedical Imaging Core Facility, the Proteomics Core Facility, and the Center for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (CCBB). These core facilities are utilized by a user community of several Investigator-initiated projects. The CCBB will provide a core research facility to support projects in the areas of molecular and quantum mechanical calculations, virtual ligand database screening for drug discovery, statistical genetics and bioinformatics, and computational proteomics. The Biomedical Imaging Core Facility will provide support to projects in the areas of magnetic, molecular, and ultra-structural imaging. The Proteomics Facility will provide support to projects requiring proteomic data analysis or the performance of proteomic procedures. The majority of the projects currently supported by the core facilities are related to the study of cancer or a number of neurological investigations including studies on Alzheimer's disease, synaptic function, schizophrenia, and amygdala functions. AIDS continues to be an important biomedical research Interest of the College of Medicine. A faculty development seminar/workshop series is proposed in order to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of existing and new faculty. This application also proposes to enhance the University's faculty-level work force In the areas of biomedical imaging, computational biology & bioinformatics, and proteomics by providing laboratory start-up support to newly recruited tenure-track faculty. Attainment of these objectives will contribute to Howard University's goals of addressing diseases that disproportionately affect disadvantaged and minority populations.